Local NHS staff celebrate rewarding careers in healthcare

Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust has presented an amazing 64 long service awards to individuals marking 20, 30 or 40 years with the NHS this year. Together, the group has a career span of 1,570 years.

Thirty-eight Trust staff are celebrating 20 years with the NHS, 23 have 30 years’ service and three have NHS careers spanning four decades.

One of those with 40 years’ service, Lynn Davies, is a community nursing assistant in Spalding and Stamford Adult Community Mental Health Team.

Lynn started work in 1977 at Rauceby Hospital near her home in Sleaford, aged 16, as one of the domestic team. She was then promoted to ward orderly, providing patient care as well as domestic duties, and in the following years worked across a number of wards until the hospital closed in 1998. She then joined the Stamford Resource Centre and today is a member of a community mental health team which provides home treatment across Spalding and Stamford.

She said: “I don’t remember ever wanting to work anywhere other than the NHS. Even after 40 years I’m still highly motivated; it is important to me to make a difference every day and I get good patient feedback, which keeps me going too.”

Anita Lewin from Sleaford also began her NHS career at Rauceby, starting as a dinner lady in 1987 at the age of 18. From there she moved into nursing, with most of her career spent in acute hospital care including roles at Boston Hospital and the Stamford Resource Centre.

Anita also worked in the community with the Grantham assertive outreach team and as a clinical nurse specialist for violence reduction. She then moved into management roles, taking responsibility for the learning and development centre and working as service manager for the crisis teams and now as divisional manager.

She said of her 30 years in the NHS: “To be honest it has been a fabulous career and I have always loved it. I consider myself to have been very lucky to find a job that I enjoy doing as much as this.”

Anne-Maria Olphert, Director of Nursing, AHPs and Quality added: “We’re delighted to be celebrating these milestones with so many colleagues who have chosen to build their careers within the NHS. “We work hard to offer rewarding roles to help keep staff within our services. We value their skills and expertise in their respective areas, and the way in which they use their experience to offer the best services to our patients.

“I hope other people who may be considering joining the Trust will be able to see roles with us as offering a rewarding career where they can make a difference to people’s lives, every day.”